1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic electronic component having excellent reliability by preventing defects in alignment of internal electrodes thereof, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In accordance with the recent trend for the miniaturization of electronic products, demand for multilayer ceramic electronic components having a smaller size and larger capacitance has increased.
For this reason, dielectric layers and inner electrode layers have been thinned and multilayered through various methods. Recently, as the thickness of dielectric layers has been reduced, multilayer ceramic electronic components having an increased number of laminated layers have been manufactured.
Meanwhile, multilayer ceramic electronic components, particularly a multilayer ceramic capacitor, have been manufactured by printing internal electrodes having a predetermined thickness on ceramic sheets or substrate sheets, the internal electrodes having a smaller area than the ceramic sheets or the substrate sheets, and then laminating them. Here, as the printed width of the internal electrode is smaller, the printed internal electrode approaches a dome shape.
In the case in which the internal electrode has a dome-like shape, the dome shape does not bear pressure, to thereby be transformed in the process of laminating ceramic green sheets on which the internal electrodes are respectively printed and pressing them, which causes defects in the alignment of the internal electrodes.
As the multilayer ceramic capacitor has a small size and large capacitance, the printed width of the internal electrode inevitably becomes narrower and narrower, causing defects in the alignment of the internal electrodes to worsen.
The following related art document discloses that dummy electrodes are formed at the outer periphery of the sheet in the process of laminating the ceramic green sheets having the internal electrodes printed thereon and pressing them, in order to solve the above defects, but this cannot represent a fundamental solution to the above defects in small-sized electronic components having a smaller printed width.
Therefore, in the small-sized, large-capacitance multilayer ceramic electronic component having a small printed width, the defects in the alignment of the internal electrodes still needs to be solved.